1. Jantz, George L. “6 Signs That You’re Addicted To Something.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 5 Nov. 2014, www.psychologytoday.com/
Background: Author Gregory L. Jantz Ph.D determines how to decipher the difference between an activity and an addiction. Without including signs of addiction to chemical substances, he focuses solely on everyday leisure activies such as social media, Netflix, sex, video games and going to the gym. These safe activities are explained to have the potential to take negative turns while addicted. To determine the severity of these addictions. there are quite a few conditions to watch out for. These conditions include: the importance of the activity and if a person chooses to priortize it over other things, engaging in the activity for a reward response, if a person finds themself doing it more and more, for longer periods of time, feelings of anxiousness when not engaging in the activity after a period of time, it’s disruption in life and relationships, and constantly reverting back the activity, after saying you were going to quit or spend less time.
How I Used It: This was a key article that I used to to convince my readers that social media/phone use could be considered an addiction, as it does often have people priotizing it over much more important things (texting and driving, real life conversations, etc.) It also have been found that many people, mostly young adults, turn to social media for a reward response (recieving likes and follows) and causes feelings of anxiety to certain users who have not logged on recently enough. Without proving that cell phone use can be considered an addition, my thesis would be proven wrong.
2. “Texting & Driving .” DMV.ORG, DMV, www.dmv.org/distracted-driving/texting-and-driving.php.
Background: Straight from dmv.org, statistics are given to show the severity of the problem of texting and driving. With texting while driving being the leading cause of deaths in teens, 42% of teens still admit to texting and driving (2015.)
How I Used It: It was important for me to show my readers the extent of the consequences that can come from excessive phone use. When a person priotizes a text message over paying attention to the road, I believe that is where you can draw the line from an activity to an addiction.
3. Teen Safe. “10 Shocking Texting and Driving Death Statistics.” TeenSafe, 31 May 2018, www.teensafe.com/blog/10-shocking-texting-and-driving-death-statistics/.
Background: More statistics of the dangers from texting and driving are displayed in this source. Distracted driving kills about 9 people each day and your risk of getting in a crash is 25% higher while using your phone. In addition, 1 in 4 drivers are dialed in during a crash.
How I Used It: Again, this was another source that I used to help to prove my thesis of the dangers of excessive screen time/social media use. The whole point of my research is to prove excessive use of phones as an unhealthy, potentially dangerous habit.
4. Said, Uptin. “Social Media Making Millennials Less Social: Study.” CNBC, CNBC, 17 Oct. 2015, http://www.cnbc.com/2015/10/15/social-media-making-millennials-less-social-study.html.
Background: This article touches on how millenials are being more anti-social in the real world due to being distracted by their phones in social situations and the extent of how often they feel the need to check their phones. It was found in a study of 150,000 millenials that 87 percent of millenials admitted to missing out on a conversation due to being distracted by their phones and in that same group, 54 percent have feelings of being “left out” if they haven’t checked their social media recently. Other studies found that out of 3,000 participants, 76% of the females admitted to checking their social media platforms at least 10 times while out with friends, comapred to 54 percent of males/
How I Used It: Most of my research I wanted to back up my initial research of how to determine an addiction that is not from a chemical substance. Priotizting being one of the symptons, it is clear that millenials are now more concered more with their “social life” on social media than real-life interactions, making them more anti-social.
5. Newman, Tim. “Unlocking the Personality of a Social Media Addict.” Medical News Today, MediLexicon International, 17 Mar. 2018, www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321240.php.
Background: This source unlocks the personality traits that may cause users to become social media addicts. Based on a five-factor personality model, it was found that people who have higher anxiety increases the chances of being hooked to social media, while people who are more determined and better at controling their impulses decreases the chances of them becoming addicted to social media.
How I used It: As important as it is to describe to my readers how to determine addictions that do not involve chemical substances, it was just as important for me to reseacrh who is more prone to becoming addicted to get a better idea of this millenial epidemic. Not only was it found that people with anxiety were at a higher risks and those who are more determined are at a lower risk, things were found to be not that simple. I had to include that not everything is just black and white; when certain personality traits such as anxiousness and agreeableness (which was found to have little effect on someone becoming addicted to social media,) mix together, that also could be a recipe for a social media addict. This made me realize that there is so much more that is still to be learned and understood of our relationships with technology and how they effect us all individually.
6. Anthony, Janet. “8 Proven Ways How To Use Social Media for Motivation.” The Next Scoop, The Next Scoop, 2018, thenextscoop.com/social-media-for-motivation/.
Background: My worthy opponent, Janet Anthony describes what she believes to be all positive uses of social media to increase motivation, including easy access to support groups, endless inspirational stories and the use of social media to distract yourself, in result re-charging the brain .
How I Used It: I believe advising your readers to distract themselves with social media is not only useless (most are already distracted,) but to say that procrastinating on social media will lead to success is a bit rash. I do not believe Anthony is giving useful advise to her users, as time away from the screen will not only be more effective in re-charging the brain, but also a lot safer (considering the dangers of distracted phone use.)
7. Patel, Neil. “When, How, and How Often to Take a Break.” Inc., 11 Dec. 2014, www.inc.com/neil-patel/when-how-and-how-often-to-take-a-break.html.
Background: Neil Patel discusses the importance of giving our bodies a break. He believes that every 50-90 minutes, with breaks ranging from 15-20 minutes ( and perhaps longer for lunch.) is the perfect amount of time to collect yourself. What should we do do during these breaks? Well, according to this article, screen time is something that should absolutely be avoided when re-charging. Instead, things like a quick nap, moving your body, and conversation are all productive ways to feeling back on top.
How I Used It: I used this information to help disprove Janet’s beliefs in using your phone to re-charge the brain. When most people are already so consumed by their phones, why reccomened more time spent on them?
8. Jones, Abigail. “Screen Time Makes Tweens Clueless on Reading Social Cues.” Newsweek, 21 Aug. 2014, www.newsweek.com/2014/09/12/screen-time-makes-tweens-clueless-reading-social-cues-266213.html.
Background: This article discusses the consequence of young children and teenagers engaging in excessive screen time. It has been found that children spend more than 7 1/2 hours a day using their phones, watching television, using their tablets, and playng video games. Effects of this have been found to effect their ability to recognize social cues and how well they learn social skills in general.A recent study given in the article even found that tweens who spent five days at camp, media free, were able to understand emotions better than that of their peers who stayed home and did not attend camp.
How I Used It: Educating my readers on the fact that addiction to screen time is not just only a thing millenials experience, but the younger generations are as well. The possibilty of phone and tablet use effecting the social development of children should be enough to prove that this addiction can definitley have long-term consequences.
9. “The Negative Impacts of Social Media Addiction.” Castle Craig Hospital, Castle Craig Hospital , 2018, castlecraig.co.uk/.
Background: Castle Craigh Hospital focuses on the effects social media can have on people with low self-esteem, as they constantly are envious of the idealized lives on social media. It also talks about the distractions that come along with social media.
How I Used It: Considering social media isn’t really reality and most of the things we view are not factual, it still can play a major role in self-esteem issues (especially in young women.) I used this article as inspiration to inform my readers that most of the people they idolize on social media, aren’t really living the picture picture lives they appear to be; people only post the good stuff they want people to see, not the bad. Photoshop on instagram and other social platforms is something I also addressed because I believe that if more people understand the false reality of social media, maybe there would be less people trying to reach unrealistic standards.
10. Jones, Abigail. “The Girls Who Tried to Kill for Slender Man.” Newsweek, 13 Aug. 2014, www.newsweek.com/2014/08/22/girls-who-tried-kill-slender-man-264218.html.
Background: This article covers the tragic story of two 12 year old girls who repeatedly stabbed one of their best friends to please an online-made fictional character, the Slender Man.
How I Used It: Whether or not the girls truly believed the Slender Man to be real, they were engulfed enough in the story to become entranced and allow it to control their actions. Had they not spent so much time on the internet researching such a subject, the incident surely would have been avoided. I used this story to show that the girls were so submerged in the internet world, that they did not even think about the reality of the consequences in the real world.
Counterintuitive 